Users can create, or otherwise have access to, various media files, such as video files generated using a camcorder, etc., audio files stored on CDs or hard drives of a computing device, etc. Users often desire to edit one or more of these media files, also referred to herein as source files. For example, a user may be interested in only a portion of a media file, such as a small segment of a video file that captures a pet playing in the water, and the user may desire to make this smaller segment a separate, unique, output, file. As another example, a user may wish to reorder portions of a media file, such as altering the order of one or more songs stored in an audio file of several songs. As still another example, a user may wish to edit a media file by, e.g., changing one or more portions, i.e., frames or sets of frames, of a color video file to black-and-white.
Users generally wish to expeditiously preview a media, source, file, or files, or one or more portions thereof. Efforts that are expended to process source file sections a user is not interested in and/or not likely to be concerned with take time from attention to user concerns and curtail the ability to produce a preview output to a user in a timely manner.